Bachmann Lashes Into Obama on Israel and Iran

Undermining the spirit of bipartisanship that has been emphasized all weekend at AIPAC – from Democrats like President Barack Obama to Republicans like Minnesota’s own U.S. Representative Erik Paulsen, in her interview with TC Jewfolk today, U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann went on the attack blaming President Obama for the crisis the U.S. and Israel now face in Iran, as well as the rise of militant Islam and Sharia law worldwide. [Watch the Video Interview Below]

Congresswoman Bachmann declared President Obama”the worst president as far as Israel’s safety and security is concerned,” a far cry from Israeli President Shimon Peres’ statement this weekend at AIPAC that under President Barack Obama’s leadership, “security cooperation between the United States of America and Israel has reached its highest level. We have a friend in the White House.”

She also said that President Obama has been the “most dangerous president as far as America’s safety and security and sovereignty is concerned.” Rep. Bachmann said President Obama has emboldened Iran through his actions, and led to an ascendancy of Sharia law in the Middle East and an ascendancy of radical Islam, specifically Al Qaeda.

“Barack Obama invited the Muslim Brotherhood to come in and he has in fact empowered them by the position he has given the Muslim Brotherhood. This has changed the dynamic forever in the Middle East,” Rep. Bachmann continued. “Tunisia has now embraced Sharia law, Libya has now embraced Sharia law and elements of Al Qaeda. Egypt is embracing elements of some Al Qaeda and Sharia and now they’re in the process of rewriting their constitution. We’re seeing an ascendancy of Sharia in the Middle East and hostility and all of the nations are against Israel.”

When asked whether that radicalism and hostility was related to President Obama’s actions, she insisted yes, and blamed this administration for the crisis the United States now faces with Iran. “Without a shadow of a doubt. Without a shadow of a doubt. Because the President has made it very clear. He has given Iran the luxury of time. That’s what he should not have done. He gave them uninterrupted, unimpeded time to develop this program and now we’re at a point that is extremely critical and the White House still can’t recognize yet the position that Iran is in, and the apex that they’re at.”

Not only did Rep. Bachmann give no evidence of any relationship between any administration policy and the prevalence of militant Islam or Sharia law, her comments fail to address the administration’s assassination of Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders. Her statement that the White House is failing to recognize the threat of Iran is contradicted by President Obama’s speech to AIPAC this weekend where he very clearly recognized the threat Iran poses to the United States and to Israel, and then vowed “that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say.”

Congresswoman Bachmann also incorrectly accused the FBI, and President Obama through it, of meeting with Muslim organizations to provide them with FBI counter-terrorism materials, and of blinding the FBI to the dangers of Islamic terror. Congresswoman Bachmann told me the following:

“What has Barack Obama done? We now know that his FBI has been meeting with what are terrorist front groups. With ISNA [the Islamic Society of North America], the Muslim Brotherhood, and CAIR. And in those meetings, they have had the ability to look at FBI training manuals and demand that any training materials for the FBI … that any references to Islam and Islamic terrorism be removed from the FBI training manual.”

Fact Check? For those not in the know, the FBI met in February with a coalition of American Muslim advocates and interfaith groups (not including the Muslim Brotherhood) about racist and offensive language in FBI training materials. The FBI conducted a solely internal investigation of 160,000 pages of its training documents, and pulled hundreds containing the offensive and racist material, but has said that it would consider a future proposal to establish an outside committee to review the FBI anti-terrorism training materials.

Overall Congresswoman Bachmann expressed concern that the President could have implemented serious sanctions almost immediately when he came into office, but instead used “a lot of cotton-candy feel good phrases,” and sent “signals of weakness” to the enemies of the United States. She expressed her belief that sanctions on Iran could work but that it was not clear that the Iranians have made an effort to change their behavior.

Congresswoman Bachmann decried the failure of the United States to realize that if Iran destroys Israel, the United States is next. “The United States needs to recognize that if God forbid Iran would achieve their goal and wipe Israel off the map, we can’t survive under any delusion that we won’t be next. We can’t take that chance. The United States needs to understand that we are inextricably entwined with Israel.” It seems that on this point there is bipartisan agreement, as President Obama stated during his speech to AIPAC on Sunday, “A nuclear-armed Iran is completely counter to Israel’s security interests. But it is also counter to the national security interests of the United States.”

About Leora Itman

Leora Maccabee Itman is the President of Jewfolk Media, Inc. and founder of TCJewfolk.com. She is a litigation attorney at Maslon, Edelman, Borman, and Brand, LLP in Minneapolis, and lives in Hopkins with her husband and baby.

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4 comments

This is the same Michelle Bachmann that is so ignorant about the Middle East that she repeatedly promised during her failed presidential campaign to close the U.S. embassy in Iran if elected, not knowing that there has been no U.S. embassy in Iran since 1978. Why would anyone listen to her about foreign policy issues? She’s proved over and over the only thing she knows about foreign policy is nothing.

Bachmann has zero credibility on foreign policy issues. Leora does a good job of illustrating how out of touch she is with reality. I’m just surprised that this excellent and forum takes her seriously enough to post such a laughable interview.

As a side note, let’s not forget that while the Jewish community is almost totally united in its campaign against the marriage amendment, Bachmann is a state leader in anti-gay rhetoric and attacks against gay rights.